Do you download or buy your music?

Music in all its forms and styles
sacredfire
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Post by sacredfire »

By download I mean "illegal" copying/file sharing etc.

 

I tend to buy music, I like to have a cd or vinyl, the cover art and having something "real" in your hands. Also better sound quality, even 320kbps mp3 is lower in quality then a cd, but I believe .flac files are lossless or the same quality?. I'm a musician/trained as a soundtech/audiophile

I do however illegally acquire some music. Stuff I can't get easily, or at a reasonable price. And sometimes I just decide that the artist already has enough money and I don't want to give them anymore! I often download stuff only to buy it later, and I stream a lot of music from internet radio stations and that.

 

So what's your take on this?

 
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Post by eyepod »

I buy CD's and some vinyl,mainly for the reasons mentioned above.but I figure the artist deserves my money.

A bit of an audiophile myself,I think Flac files are supposed to be as good as CDs,but I haven't personally varified it.
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Post by The Boss »

How can you say that you're a "musician/trained as a soundtech/audiophile" and not know if FLAC sounds the same as CD-quality?

I pirate and buy physical when/if I can. The whole industry is a joke now, so unless you're buying directly from the artist, they're probably not getting shit.

Bands and musicians make money from touring and merchandise, and I have no problem giving my cash to go see a show and buy a T-shirt.
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Post by jabuddha »

I buy.

 

I will download a bootleg, but that's not stealing. so, yea...buying is the way to go.

 

I can see a beef people could have had where you buy an album and 90% of it sucks, but with itunes and youtube there really is no reason to "preview" the album from a torrent. And the "artist" doesn't make money from album sales/the system is corrupt is BS. It is stealing. If you are okay with doing it, go ahead. A friend of mine torrents everything...games, music, tv, books. But, it is what it is. Torrents are great for some things, but if you can go to the store and buy it (and you have the cash) you probably should.
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Post by The Boss »

jabuddha said
I buy.

 

I will download a bootleg, but that's not stealing. so, yea...buying is the way to go.

 

I can see a beef people could have had where you buy an album and 90% of it sucks, but with itunes and youtube there really is no reason to "preview" the album from a torrent. And the "artist" doesn't make money from album sales/the system is corrupt is BS. It is stealing. If you are okay with doing it, go ahead. A friend of mine torrents everything...games, music, tv, books. But, it is what it is. Torrents are great for some things, but if you can go to the store and buy it (and you have the cash) you probably should.


As I mentioned, I do both, in various capacities.

I'm pretty sure at least mainstream artists get about $1 from each album sold, so I would say that the existing system is corrupt. Not much difference between giving them a dollar, and outright copying it.

I can see that this thread is going to be long and fruitless. Have fun, guys.

 
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Post by trilobite »


sacredfire said
By download I mean "illegal" copying/file sharing etc.

I tend to buy music, I like to have a cd or vinyl, the cover art and having something "real" in your hands. Also better sound quality, even 320kbps mp3 is lower in quality then a cd, but I believe .flac files are lossless or the same quality?. I'm a musician/trained as a soundtech/audiophile

I do however illegally acquire some music. Stuff I can't get easily, or at a reasonable price. And sometimes I just decide that the artist already has enough money and I don't want to give them anymore! I often download stuff only to buy it later, and I stream a lot of music from internet radio stations and that.

So what's your take on this?


 My take? That you're not exactly telling the truth, & not quite who you say you are. "Trained as a soundtech/audiophile"? Yet you're unsure of what a flac. file is? Come on... Lurk somewhere else big guy
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Post by trilobite »



Tony Fuckin Danza said 

How can you say that you're a "musician/trained as a soundtech/audiophile" and not know if FLAC sounds the same as CD-quality?

 

 Well damn Danza, beat me to it..


also, Avatar!
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Post by joeypants »

Buy as much as I can. I will occasionally download something if I'm unfamiliar with the artist and I want to check it out while I'm "on the move" as opposed to being tied to youtube or whatever. I'm very thankful to be doing better financially these days, so I buy everything I possibly can especially if it's more directly from the artist. If I really dig someone, I make every effort I can to see their shows and spend a hefty amount on merch. That's the biggest way you can help most bands, I think. Not that buying the music doesn't help, because it does.
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Post by '][' [[]] [[]] ][, »

I shoplift CDs.  I want to steal music but dislike the quality of downloads.
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Post by joeypants »

You just can't trust em, you know?
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Post by opiate250 »

I'm big on both.

 

I love illegal downloading, I grew up in the 90's with the internet...  it was kind of a way of life =)   But an artist should be paid for their work.  

 

More often or not I'll download or youtube something first.  If I'm into it, I'll usually end up buying a physical copy, directly from the band if possible.  As Crow stated, its rare for an artist to get paid much from album sales, so If i can I'll attend shows or buy shirts or something.  It's really hard sometimes living on an island and all though.

 

Hell, my cousin sent me a rip of his latest CD the other day.  I loved it, so I bought one off his website without telling him just so he would get paid something.
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Post by joeypants »

My biggest thing is the entitlement issue. If you're going to steal music/movies/whatever (and any way you slice it, it IS stealing) just own up to it and the effects it has.

 

I don't agree with it, but I "get it" in some cases. What I can't stand is when people come at it with the whole "hey information is meant to be free, man" attitude, or worse, that they're simply entitled to have whatever they want without paying because they can. No one said you're entitled to this album or that TV show. You aren't born with the "right" to own/possess everything at your fingertips. All of those things cost lots of money to create, especially if it's more of an independent artist.
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Post by opiate250 »

joeypants said
My biggest thing is the entitlement issue. If you're going to steal music/movies/whatever (and any way you slice it, it IS stealing) just own up to it and the effects it has.

 

I don't agree with it, but I "get it" in some cases. What I can't stand is when people come at it with the whole "hey information is meant to be free, man" attitude, or worse, that they're simply entitled to have whatever they want without paying because they can. No one said you're entitled to this album or that TV show. You aren't born with the "right" to own/possess everything at your fingertips. All of those things cost lots of money to create, especially if it's more of an independent artist.


"Information" should be free.

 

Art is not information.  Its someones hard work, time, and money.  I hate that argument.

 

I agree 100%  However I am a hypocrite and terrible person.     I do try though =)

 
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Post by joeypants »

It hurts if you're independent for sure. But there's also a bigger trade off there, naturally, between exposure and making at least some of your recording costs back.

 

In terms of bigger artists, sales help you get funded for other things. Like touring. It does have an effect. Whether you care or not is another story. Obviously, the bigger the artist the more they'll get by. But brushing it off with the old axiom of "artists don't make anything from album sales" is a huge over-simplification. Someone has to pay money for them to make those awesome albums, and that someone will stop doing it if/when sales drop too much.

 

Proportionately do they benefit more from touring attendance/merch sales? Yeah. But that doesn't mean it's a victimless crime when you steal their music/movies/etc. Just saying.
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Post by toolboogie »

Tony Fuckin Danza said
How can you say that you're a "musician/trained as a soundtech/audiophile" and not know if FLAC sounds the same as CD-quality?

I pirate and buy physical when/if I can. The whole industry is a joke now, so unless you're buying directly from the artist, they're probably not getting shit.

Bands and musicians make money from touring and merchandise, and I have no problem giving my cash to go see a show and buy a T-shirt.


Copy, paste aaaaand done!

 

I worked at a record store for a couple of years and I've noticed that cost prices vary a lot, even when ordering same items through different distributors. We could ask double/triple the price for some albums and they would still be mighty cheap to buyers, but there were also a lot of albums we couldn't even make money on, because they were so damn costly, but we had to have them in stores anyway. Very frustrating, being forced to 'ask' those rediculous high prices at some times... I'm in a band myself and we pressed 500 copies of our first album, neat artwork, quality pressing and all. They're almost gone now and we even made a little profit in the end, but we did it all ourselves. Big artists (mostly) don't make shit from selling their albums, trust me. Touring, merchandise and in some cases royalties is what pays the artists in the end. Selling 'independent' would help, I guess you could bring down a lot of costs that way. Personally I'd like to think I have an above-average collection of cd's/vinyl, so I think I paid my share in buying original copies. In other words: I spend more money on music than 99% of the people I know. On the other hand, downloading (illegally) is still stealing, but I found a lot of great 'new' music that way and actually went and BOUGHT the original and/or attended their concerts. It's some sort of promotion too, I guess... Festival and concert ticket (I won't even start on a simple beer) prices went through the roof in only 15/20 years overhere. I call that stealing too, at least in some cases.
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Post by joeypants »

toolphishdhs said
the other part is i dont really care nearly as much as i used to about collecting a bunch of useless shit on a harddrive (or god forbid, cds or vinyl, i aint got time fo dat) and worrying about it crashing.  

.
I have to say, one of the smartest things iTunes/Apple ever did was open up the whole previous purchases thing. I don't use the "cloud" per se, but it is an awesome feeling knowing that what I've bought on there is just out there and I can download it again whenever I want. That said, I try to use other more "direct" avenues when I can.
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Post by UndKeineZwEier »

joeypants said

toolphishdhs said
the other part is i dont really care nearly as much as i used to about collecting a bunch of useless shit on a harddrive (or god forbid, cds or vinyl, i aint got time fo dat) and worrying about it crashing.  

.


I have to say, one of the smartest things iTunes/Apple ever did was open up the whole previous purchases thing. I don't use the "cloud" per se, but it is an awesome feeling knowing that what I've bought on there is just out there and I can download it again whenever I want. That said, I try to use other more "direct" avenues when I can.


Amazon recently added the Autorip allowing you to download certain albums for free when you buy the CD. One of the coolest parts about it was that it wasn't limited to future purchases. You could download CDs you bought years ago. There were some people who could access albums they bought back in 1998.

 
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Post by joeypants »

Ooooh, that's awesome! More stuff like that, please. This is the kind of shit that makes me feel even better about buying music.
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Post by '][' [[]] [[]] ][, »

Downloading music has ruined the music industry.  There is a direct connection between illegal downloading and the wave of utterly shitty music being produced these days.  Since record companies can no longer profit from the substantial investments they make in an artist they're now not willing to invest much at all.  Because of that the airways are now polluted with this cheaply produced hipster electronic keyboard faggotry.  Look at what won all those awards last Grammys, Goyote!  That kind of music is fucking horrible and makes me want to torture kittens.

 

And "artists have never made money from record sales"?  That's such a rediculous statement that I don't need to point out all the ways that it's incorrect.
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Post by InFlamesOfBirchmen »

Both. I mainly use Spotify, but if I really admire an artist's work, or if Spotify simply doesn't have what I'm looking for, I'll just hit up YouTube or buy the album. In the past month alone I dropped a good $40 on CDs

 

Just a thought, but I'd like to put forth an argument: I don't believe illegal downloading is responsible for the shit music that climbs the chart. As technology becomes easier to use and more widely available, it makes sense that more and more people would take advantage of it. Therefore, it isn't illegal downloads, but Garage Band, YouTube, Acid (in before drug pun), and other recording software/distribution models. In essence, it isn't that music has gotten SHITTIER, it's just easier to spread, and thus, we're more aware of it than we were previously.
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Post by Ravenpig »

UndKeineEier said

joeypants said


toolphishdhs said
the other part is i dont really care nearly as much as i used to about collecting a bunch of useless shit on a harddrive (or god forbid, cds or vinyl, i aint got time fo dat) and worrying about it crashing.  

.


I have to say, one of the smartest things iTunes/Apple ever did was open up the whole previous purchases thing. I don't use the "cloud" per se, but it is an awesome feeling knowing that what I've bought on there is just out there and I can download it again whenever I want. That said, I try to use other more "direct" avenues when I can.


Amazon recently added the Autorip allowing you to download certain albums for free when you buy the CD. One of the coolest parts about it was that it wasn't limited to future purchases. You could download CDs you bought years ago. There were some people who could access albums they bought back in 1998.

 


Thanks for the reminder on this.  Just added some songs that were just waiting for me there.

 
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Post by sacredfire »

Perhaps I should clarify for those Tool fans who pounce on the first sign of weakness.

Musician: I play Bass Guitar.

Trained as a Soundtech: I did a course on how to use a mixing desk and worked at festivals and gigs (mostly as a rigger/roadie).

Audiophile: I like listening to music? Preferably with the best sound.

 

I only really taught myself how to pirate music a couple of years ago, which was only a few years after I introduced myself to the internet, which was only a couple of years after I first got a computer. Sure, I could google what a .flac file is, then I'd have to work out if I had anything that could play one (I have nero on my laptop?)...blah, I might read a book instead. Technology has invaded every aspect of our lives, it was only grudgingly that I let it near my love for music. It took me a long time to even try playing a solid state bass amp  now I have a couple, and some cabs with neodymium speakers for the lightweightness.

 

Also when I say the artist has enough money and I'm not giving them any more, it's usually because my partner wants the latest pop song garbage, and I'll happily rip that shit off, like I'm doing the world a favour.

 

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Post by joeypants »

InFlamesOfBirchmen said

Just a thought, but I'd like to put forth an argument: I don't believe illegal downloading is responsible for the shit music that climbs the chart. As technology becomes easier to use and more widely available, it makes sense that more and more people would take advantage of it. Therefore, it isn't illegal downloads, but Garage Band, YouTube, Acid (in before drug pun), and other recording software/distribution models. In essence, it isn't that music has gotten SHITTIER, it's just easier to spread, and thus, we're more aware of it than we were previously.


However, it is directly responsible for making it more difficult for artists to get funding for recording time. Which is pretty huge. The more help you have with that, albums sound exponentially better. And as a listener/fan, that should matter. But we're sort of past that point in a way. Or at least in a transition phase.
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